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You are here: Home / Storytelling Q&A / Alternative Ways to Tell a Client Success Story

Storytelling Q&A

Alternative Ways to Tell a Client Success Story

Last week I taught a custom webinar for Progressive Executive Education on storytelling for non-profits. We covered a lot of ground from talking about the 5 Cs of storytelling to tips for creating culture of storytelling.

At the end of the webinar we did a question and answer session. Lots of great questions were asked, but one in particular sticks out in my mind.

“Our organization helps infants. Aside from using their parents to tell their story, how else can we tell their success stories?”

This is an excellent question that applies to most non-profits. Telling client success stories or impact stories is a core part of our communication with donors. These types of stories are tangible examples of the work that donors make possible. The concern is that if we constantly tell these stories they can become stale.

Here’s my suggestion: look for other perspectives that can tell the story.

Let’s look at the organization that helps infants. Parents are the most natural storytellers in this instance. They have the closest connection to the infants and are most impacted by the outcome.

Now, when we start to look for perspectives aside from the parents it can be helpful to list all of the possible perspectives. In this example, the organization is a hospital. To determine the possible perspectives for the impact story, I created a mindmap of people who may have been involved with the infant’s case.

MindMap - March 23

As you can see from the image above, there are numerous alternatives to using the parents’ perspective to tell the success story.

If you’d like to see an example of an impact story told from an alternative perspective, I recommend this video from the Arnold Palmer Children’s Hospital. I’ve shared it on the blog before, but I think it is a great illustration of what we’re discussing.

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About Vanessa Chase Lockshin

My name is Vanessa Chase Lockshin, and I want to empower you to tell your story. In my personal life, finding ways to tell my stories has been a transformational practice. In my fundraising life, I’ve helped hundreds of organizations tell their stories to engage and inspire their donors. To date, my work has helped non-profits raise over $10 million.

« 5 Ideas to Improve Your Monthly Giving Program
3 Ways to Steward Donors with a Story »

Hi there!

My name is Vanessa Chase Lockshin and I've helped non-profits raise over $10 million by telling stories that engage and inspire donors. I'm the author of The Storytelling Non-Profit: A practical guide to telling stories that raise money and awareness, and the creator of immersive online training programs that have trained thousands of non-profit professionals. Read More…

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